


Tranquility

by grumpu



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Mages, Minor Spoilers, Other, Trespasser DLC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2019-05-18 08:02:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14848880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grumpu/pseuds/grumpu
Summary: After the events at the Cross Roads, Cassandra takes Hibou Lavellan to the Winter Palace... one last time.





	Tranquility

**Author's Note:**

> This is a very short story I wrote immediately after completing my first Trespasser playthrough with my first inquisitor, a Levellan mage. It doesn't really have spoilers!
> 
> Again, it's short, just a little drabble. More to come, as I've just replayed DA:O and DA2. :)

The Winter Palace was truly beautiful in spring, though Cassandra had never understood why anyone would ever choose to live here. Nobles hustled and bustled about, content in the lives the Inquisition had ensured them. With their future secured, they continued to play The Game as deceitfully as ever. Sitting on one of the many benches scattered about the gardens, Cassandra squinted against the bright sunlight; there wasn't a cloud in sight. If only her purpose was as bright as the day today.

It had been nearly six months since Solas’s confrontation with Hibou in the Cross Roads. She’d returned from the encounter heartbroken, Cassandra could tell. Hibou didn’t speak of it; rather, she chose to beat the snot out of their training dummies with fireballs and blunt stabs from her staff. Solas had always said she should work on her defensive magic, her hand-to-hand technique. It had been important to Hibou to resume her training, now that she only had one hand to use. Relearning how to write, use her staff, even how to eat had been a challenge that was only made worse by the confusion and anger that lingered after Solas. She’d never quite been the same, though she’d masked the gaping wounds with her humor and sarcasm. “The Inquisitor was hilarious,” Cassandra remembered spouting to her one afternoon. “That’s what they’ll say one day, you watch.”

Sour words to dwell on as a group of Winter Palace guards escorted a young woman towards her. Cassandra stood, bile bubbling in the back of her throat, threatening to make her sick. In her younger Seeker days, Cassandra had believed that the Rite had a time and a place, though it was abused from time to time based on the whims of those in power. However, the sight of her dear friend as merely a shell had tears pricking the backs of her eyes. Cassandra had taken her light-hearted facade as truth... and it was one more tally on her long list of regrets.

“Seeker. The Rite is complete — the council is releasing her to your care.”

Hibou made no real acknowledgment of her friend’s presence. What once would have been a snarky quip or snide comment about the guards was now just a deafening silence, though the whistle of the wind and the rustle of the garden served as white noise around them.

“Are you… alright?” Cassandra was hesitant to ask, fearing the answer she’d receive.

“Yes, of course.” The tone of her voice betrayed nothing since there was nothing there to betray. Hibou had stated to her once in confidence that she was afraid that the Inquisition, all the worship and the admiration, would suck the very soul out of her.

 _In the end, it wasn’t the Inquisition…_  Cassandra thought to herself as she began to lead the Inquisitor — or rather, the shadow that had taken her place — from the Palace. A familiar, though somewhat forgotten feeling rose in her chest. The sting of unrequited vengeance.

_It was Solas._


End file.
